Introducing Tyler Livingston, a summer Licensing Team intern

Tyler Livingston is one of the Licensing Team's summer interns. In this post he discusses
the importance of free software and his personal interests.

Hello. I am a rising Third Year law student at SMU Dedman School of Law in
Dallas, TX. I am working hard to master the technical aspects of law,
electronics, and software. My current interests involve protecting
individuals and investigating new technology, particularly in the
communications field by utilizing licenses for authorship, art,
and inventions. Prior to law school, I attained a bachelor's degree in
History at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Licensing is where I began to be involved with free software; the FSF
in particular utilizes a great strategy of working within the current
licensing jurisprudence by using copyleft to support freedom
and empowerment for users over their computers and software. My
computer science skills are lacking, but I have worked with UNIX
systems in the past and am now finally feeling comfortable enough to
make a permanent switch to enjoy software on my own terms. Other
interests include electronics and travel (with a trip planned to
Eastern Europe later this year).

Over the summer I will be working with the licensing department on
various projects, including the Free Software Directory,
publications, and hopefully a bit of the nitty-gritty licensing terms
and compliance issues. The number one priority for my time at the FSF is to
learn. Collaboration brings together society and carries with it
several other natural positive externalities. I hope to integrate into
the free software community because it is an integral cog of the free
software movement. I am extremely excited to reach out to others and
soak up as much as I can from this enthralling environment.